Author Archives: admin

‘My lecturer says I’m wrong but I think my opinion is as valid as his / hers.’ Lecturers are not divine so cannot claim to be infallible but they are generally better informed than their students. They are also the … Read More

There are no websites that can check grammar for you 100% reliably but students often find the Grammarly site useful (and no, I have no link with them so am not getting paid for mentioning them!). Online guides are best used as … Read More

Luciano Branco, a French pastor, explains that our culture’s ‘Christmas’ lights celebrate light at what feels like the darkest part of the year. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”, coming to bring light to the dark places in … Read More

It’s exam time. Cue sleepless nights, cramming and stress. How long should an exam essay be? How do I choose which exam question to do and which should I do first? How long should I spend on each question? How … Read More

‘Help! I have to choose a research topic!’ Students often email me with very open questions when they’re stressed and I am their last resort so I’m guessing this may be something along those lines. I feel for you. It … Read More

What difference does Jesus’ death and resurrection make? It’s crucial – if Jesus did not rise from the dead then Christians have no hope of life after death – he was just another good teacher. Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians … Read More

So your lecturer has asked you for a ‘close analysis’ of a piece of text. You have no idea what that means. What do you do? Panic. Not good – panic breeds paralysis and you no doubt have a deadline. … Read More

‘I don’t really know what’s relevant – I just get lost and the set texts don’t help because they’re too complicated’. There are two issues here: you find the set texts difficult to read and you’re not sure how to … Read More

Christmas celebrates the coming of Jesus to offer forgiveness and peace with God to all who put their trust in him but what we perceive to be Christmas tradition in the UK owes much to Dickens. Somewhere in the last … Read More

Please don’t over-think this. Read as much of the text as you can so that you can get the most out of the teaching time. If you can’t read much before the seminar or lecture do please still go! You … Read More

What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is the deliberate unacknowledged use of someone’s else’s material ie passing off someone else’s ideas as your own. That’s why we have referencing systems 🙂 . Plagiarism is NOT repeating a point that your lecturer made … Read More

A tutorial is where you meet a lecturer either for a one-to-one session or as a small group, usually either in the lecturer’s office or a seminar room. You will probably have to read something to prepare for the tutorial … Read More

Freshers’ or Induction Week is most students’ introduction to University. Most people anticipate a fun-filled week of partying, getting to know what clubs are available and generally celebrating new-found freedom. There is an element of this but after the adrenalin-filled … Read More

Exams – again… How do you survive? The bad news about resits is, well, they’re exams … again. The good news is that they are only exams and while no-one ever wants to do more exams than they have to, … Read More

How To Gain Confidence Surviving University requires more than academic skills. Increasingly students are being asked to do things to make themselves more marketable in the workplace so rather than ‘simply’ writing essays they often have to do presentations. Even … Read More

I’ve just seen a post on my Facebook page asking for ideas on research topics. This is tricky since I have no idea what sort of research it refers to. Students often email me with very open questions when they’re … Read More